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The sun was a rusted coin hanging over the Sierras when the arrived. She didn’t wear a habit of silk, but of travel-stained wool, and she didn’t carry a cross—she carried a heavy, notched spade.

The Vultures drew their steel. The Sinners held their breath. The sun was a rusted coin hanging over

The Monk looked at the Vultures trailing her, then at the Sinners shivering in the heat. She didn’t pray. She simply drove the spade into the hard earth. The Sinners held their breath

She stopped at the mouth of the "Devil’s Throat" canyon. There, lined up against the red rock, were the . They were women of the borderlands, shackled together by a single iron chain. They had been left there by the law to bake, their crimes ranging from horse theft to heartbreak. She simply drove the spade into the hard earth

"The ground is too dry for graves," the Monk said, her voice like grinding stones. "And I’ve no interest in burying the living. But I do have enough water for seven, and a spade for three."

Behind her, circling in the heat haze, were the . They weren’t birds. They were men in black duster coats, eyes hollowed out by greed, waiting for her to drop from exhaustion so they could claim the gold rumored to be hidden in her satchel. They kept their distance, wary of the way she gripped that spade like a claymore.